The 2016 Houston Press Music Award Nominees

First things first. This year’s Houston Press Music Awards ballot doesn’t look anything like the ballots we’ve had in previous years. It’s not supposed to. To be honest, the previous model was in danger of collapsing under its own weight; perversely, it almost became a victim of Houston’s amazing diversity. This year we wanted to eradicate the traditional lines dividing one type of music from another, boundaries that are often problematic to begin with, and hand out awards according to the way these artists’ music makes you feel, what it makes you want to do, and what it reveals about the mind (or minds) who create it. Conversely, the elemental categories — singer, rapper, DJ, instrumentalist — have been simplified. It’s an experiment, sure, but it’s worth a try, and now seems like the perfect time to do it.

We’re also nudging those of you who may not pay as much attention to Houston’s musical riches (and niches) as others to go exploring, hoping you’ll find a wealth of new favorites in the names below. Finally, we also expanded the ballot to include several key roles filled by non-musicians, the behind-the-scenes players who are equally worthy of recognition but almost always go unsung — the sound engineers, festival producers, booking agents, graphic designers and, last but hardly least, the fans.

One last thing: This ballot is also purposefully incomplete. The Houston Press music staff chose the names you see below, but one category we’re glad to hold over from the previous HPMA model is the Readers’ Choice award. If your favorite artist’s name doesn’t appear below, we encourage you to vote for them here at this link. Voting for the ballot is now open at this link and continues through Friday, November 18. Good luck to all the nominees!

LIVE

Gio Chamba & Trippy Cholo

Only Beast

Jody Seabody & the Whirls

Snooty Garbagemen

The Suffers

Young Mammals

Wild Moccasins

BAND FOR DRINKING

Baron Von Bomblast

Blaggards

Dead Rabbits

Poor Dumb Bastards

Mike Stinson Band

Blackgrass Gospel

Sauce Twinz

BAND FOR DANCING

Catch Fever

Children of Pop

Deep Cuts

The Escatones

Fab 5

Mikey & the Drags

Phantom Royals

Umbrella Man

HEAVY/ANGRY BAND

Blood of an Outlaw

Cop Warmth

Funeral Horse

Oceans of Slumber

PLXTX

Venomous Maximus

We Were Wolves

SEXYTIME

Bang Bangz

Dollie Barnes

Jack Freeman

Nick Greer

Chase Hamblin & the Roustabouts

Jerk

MNYNMS

-Us

WOKE

Days N’ Daze

Dirty & Nasty

Giant Kitty

Lyric Michelle

Real McCoys

The Wheel Workers

WEIRD

Ak’Chamel

Fiddle Witch & the Demons of Doom

Handsomebeast

Illicit Relationship

Rusted Shut

Say Girl Say

MORE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT…

Black Kite

Guilla

Nathan Quick

Alex Riddle

Satanic Overlords of Rock & Roll

Space Villains*

Thrill

Whit

STALWART

30FootFALL

Flamin’ Hellcats

deadhorse

Free Radicals

Rick Lee & the Night Owls

Trudy Lynn

Los Skarnales

The Suspects

NEWCOMER

Colonial Blue

El Lago

Frog Hair

Ingrid

Mark Drew

Secret Sands

Ashley Toman

Vodi

MAD GENIUS

B L A C K I E

Chase DeMaster

Maxo Kream

Muzak John

Pfaff Pfaffenberg

The Wiggins

Twisted Wires

LYRICS

BIZ (Brian Is Ze)

Adam Bricks

Doughbeezy

DeLorean

Richard Kimball (Distant Worker)

Craig Kinsey

Lyric Michelle

Propain

SINGER

Kristal Cherelle

Kam Franklin (The Suffers)

Cammie Gilbert (Oceans of Slumber)

Lee-Lonn

Vockah Redu

Nathan Quick

Stephanie Rice (Colonial Blue)

RAPPER

Doeman

Fat Tony

Genesis Blu

Le$

Pyrexx

Slim Thug

Paul Wall

Z-Ro

DJ

Damon Allen

Big Reeks

Gracie Chavez

Josh Dupont

Flash Gordon Parks

Ill Faded

Mr. Rogers

Riddler

PLAYER

Peter Bernick (Only Beast)

Jordan Donald

Sandy Ewen

Steve Krase

Chapy Luna (The Suffers)

Roberto Rodriguez

THEME NIGHT

A Fistful of Soul

Bombon

Classic Numbers

Saves the Tuesday

Tejas Got Soul

Vinyl Ranch

Waxaholic Thursdays

FESTIVAL

Day For Night

FPSF

Houston Whatever Fest

Madness on Main/Yes, Indeed!

Praia Urbana

Something Wicked

VENUE (SOUND) * 5,000 seats or less

McGonigel’s Mucky Duck

House of Blues

Nightingale Room

Revention Music Center

Rudyard’s

Walters

Warehouse Live

White Oak Music Hall

BOOKING

Bassman PEP

John Baldwin (Walters/Satellite)

Cactus Music in-stores

Havin' a Ball Productions

Nameless Sound

Pegstar

ScoreMore

Punk Rock Stacy (Rudyard's)

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